Tipping the Scales
by whootsies
Summary: Chell is forced to return to Aperture, and a deal is worked out with GLaDOS, putting them on equal ground. Of course... it doesn't stay like that for long.


She had been left with no choice, it was as simple as that.

When Chell took her first steps into the wheat field, she was optimistic; the sun was shining, the world outside was full of mystery again. She knew a lot of time had passed, but she had hoped to find a city soon. Maybe humanity hadn't changed much.

After a week of walking north from sun up to sun down, living only on the berries and various other strange types of fruit she could find (each new type she tried was a game of Russian Roulette; it might be poisonous, it might be safe, or it might give her food poisoning like that round purple-bluish one did) she realized she would not survive long out here with sources of fresh water few and far between, limited to small ponds and puddles she stumbled upon every so often.

She eventually made the gut wrenching decision to turn back, knowing that giving herself up was the end of her freedom, what she had fought for and tested for and been shot at for and exposed to deadly neurotoxin for and had nearly _died_ for.

But she had to live. She couldn't just allow herself to die.

As she took a breath, opened the shed door and stepped onto the platform, the elevator almost immediately began moving down with a small hitch.

This time, there were no singing turrets, no grand welcome.

As she passed into GLaDOS' chamber, she felt her stomach sink and the mechanical chuckle that bounced off the walls didn't help.

"Back already?" the A.I. turned in her chassis towards her former test subject, and the grin was almost audible in her voice. "I thought you would have lasted longer."

Chell glared daggers at her former captor, but nights of fragile and uneasy sleep on a hard ground, malnutrition and dehydration had taken their toll on her. She was already swaying uneasily side to side with exhaustion, threatening to collapse.

A deal was worked out between them, except this time, Chell had some semblance of leverage; GLaDOS knew she could destroy her if she was pushed too far. But Chell also knew the consequences of biting the hand that fed her. Literally.

Chell would test. Eight hours a day at least, like a regular job. She would be granted personal time, time for sleep, or relaxation, or "doing whatever it is you do when you're _not_ destroying the facility." But she would also be fed, taken care of, and left well enough alone outside of testing.

"Like a pet," Chell thought with disgust as she drifted off to sleep in one of the beds in the employee dormitories after her first day of her return to testing.

Chell was surprised to find that she was treated... quite well. Much better than before. The insults were kept to the occasional joke about her nonexistant chubbiness, or her adopted status, or her attempted escape with Wheatley. And even when she did, it seemed more good-natured than before. Like a punch on the arm between friends than a punch in the face by an enemy.

She knew something had changed between them down there, in the bowels of Aperture.

GLaDOS had fed her quite well, actually- given her access to the facility cafeteria where vast stores of food had been kept to upkeep the large amount of employees Aperture had once had. It was all non-perishable, and still edible after all these years.

This arrangement was actually working out, surprisingly.

Until Chell got sick.

It was nothing much, just a common cold. But being in this sterile facility for so long had weakened her immune system, so it completely took it out of her. It hit her out of the blue; she slept completely past the alarm.

About ten minutes past when she was supposed to report for testing, GLaDOS' voice came over the intercom.

"Wake up, test subject," she cooed in a mock sing-song voice. "There's _science_ to be done."

Chell finally pried her eyes open, but buried her face in the comfort of the pillow even more, and pulled the covers up over her head. Her head was pounding and every bone in her body whined with a dull ache. She just wanted to sleep; she didn't care if GLaDOS made her do sixteen hours of testing tomorrow to make up for the eight she wanted to miss today, she felt awful and wanted to return to that wonderful dream she was having...

"Hey, don't go back to sleep," GLaDOS admonished. "Get out of bed."

Chell started to turn over and ignore her until a thought popped into her mind.

How did GLaDOS know she was still in bed? There were no cameras in her room-

Chell threw the covers off and almost leaped out of bed, quickly scanning the room and ignoring the pain that pulsed through her body.

A mechanical sigh echoed through the room. "Well, yes, I do have hidden cameras in the room. You were going to find out eventually, I suppose. They're in all the employee dormitories, though, so it's not as if I set up something _special _for you."

No. She knew GLaDOS. She had been watching her.

She had watched her while she slept.

She had watched her undress and take showers.

She had watched her-

Chell's face grew red hot with embarrassment and she she almost fell back onto the bed. Her face contorted in a mix of rage, humiliation, and shame.

"Is _that_ what you're so embarrassed about?" GLaDOS gave a haughty little chuckle. "It's human sexuality. I don't care about it in slightest."

It didn't make the wet blanket of humiliation that had been thrown onto her any less heavy.

"Don't think I watch you all the time, either. I check in every once in a while. See how you're doing. But unless you're planning to destroy the facility again, I have no interest in what you do in your personal time."

Chell swallowed the lump that was in her throat and tried to remind herself that this was an A.I. she was talking to. A computer. Computers didn't have sexualities.

"Anyway, if you can jump out of bed like that, you can test. Now report to the elevator."

She slowly shuffled to her bathroom and took some of the spare cold medicine she found, and then made her way to the elevator.

It may not have been eye contact technically, but Chell still couldn't bring herself to so much as glance at any of the cameras.

/

Everything was awkward for the next week. Whenever GLaDOS spoke to her, the memory of GLaDOS calling her out bobbed to the surface and her face flushed with embarrassment. GLaDOS brought up Chell's odd behavior once, but let it go after she refused to answer visually.

After a day of particularly hard tests, Chell all but dragged her feet back to the dorm room she had begun to call home. It was kept semi-clean; but she hadn't finished organizing the supplies she had raided from the other dorms, and, of course, there were times when she was simply too tired, like tonight, to pick anything up and put it back in its proper place. She plopped down onto her bed (which she had neglected to make this morning) with a creak erupting from the mattress springs, and tugged off her long fall boots. Tossing them to the side, she quickly slipped the tie she used to keep her hair out of her face off, and fell back onto the bed.

"Those long fall boots are expensive Aperture equipment; _do_ try to be more careful with them," came the snide reminder.

A silent growl escaped Chell. What gave the A.I. the right to watch her in her private quarters, even for a moment? They were no longer prisoner and captor, they were

She was almost too tired to give that much of a damn. Almost. She still wasn't tired enough to crawl into bed and sleep.

Chell pulled herself off the mess of covers she had collapsed into and took a few steps towards the nightstand. Wrapping her thin fingers around the handle of the second drawer and tugging it open with slight effort, she pulled out the slightly wrinkled and aged magazine.

It had always been a stress-reliever, something to relax her fully when she was tense and sore. Chell briefly considered running into the bathroom to do it, but, she figured GLaDOS had cameras in there as well, so, what was the point? In fact, what was the point in hiding it? GLaDOS knew. And she didn't care; she couldn't care! The worst she could do was tease her sexuality, and Chell had already learned not to care what others thought of her sexual preferences.

This dorm had belonged to a male, she inferred from the clothes, the sanitary products in the bathroom, and this 1982 girly magazine. Flipping through the pages, she sighed. It had been far too long since she had seen another _person_, much less another _woman_.

The pages were filled with photos of tastefully nude women, some putting on stockings, some taking off their satin robes, others grinning at the camera with nothing on but a cowboy hat and boots

Chell undid the zipper on her jumpsuit and tugged it down her hips and legs. She tossed it in the general direction of her boots, and crawled up her bed to rest against her pillows. She shifted until she found a comfortable position, straightening her left leg and propping her right knee up so she could balance the magazine on it. Flipping through another page, she found one photo in particular she liked; an older woman, not much older than the other models but still noticeably aging, in white blouse that had been unbuttoned, exposing her breasts, one hand above her head and the other pulling her skirt up to reveal a pair of lace panties. There was a slightly arrogant expression on her face, and she gave a daring stare at the viewer.

Chell quickly swiped her tongue across the pads of her index and middle fingers, and shoved her hand beneath the waistband of her white cotton panties and started rubbing. Her hand knew right where to go; she was no stranger to her own body.

Her tongue quickly darted out to wet her lips and she turned the page with her free hand. Her breathing grew heavier as little shocks of pleasure ran their way up her spine.

...What if she was watching right that moment?

She hastily tossed the magazine to the side, allowing her to spread her legs wider, and took her index and middle fingers in her mouth, running her tongue along them as her eyes flitted across the room, imagining where the cameras could be. Pushing aside the crotch of her panties, she let her fingers delve into herself, with little regard to gentleness. A breath that would be a whine, if she had a voice, escaped her, and she probed deeper until she found just the right spot.

_Why exactly would she even watch; for science? _the thought crossed her mind as she mercilessly rubbed her clit harder and thrust her fingers faster.

She could just imagine, any moment the A.I.'s voice would resound through the room, encouraging her to go faster, harder. Spread her legs wider, give a better view. She'd make some speech about it all being for science, being part of a test but Chell would know it wasn't for that at all.

The pressure inside her grew, the tingling jolts of pleasure became more intense and somewhere in the back of her mind Chell knew she _should not be thinking about this at all_, but primal need had overcome her sense and she couldn't bring herself to care too much.

Chell could just imagine the lilt in her voice as she told her to come.

Her muscles stiffened and she tensed around her fingers as she came; her throat constricted in a silent moan and her back arched away from the bed as her toes curled. Her hips rocked against her fingers as her orgasm slowly faded, and she was left panting with her muscles slack.

She laid there for a moment, catching her breath, and she used the back of her hand to wipe away the sweat that had formed on her forehead. Pulling her fingers out of herself, she noticed that they covered in the usual sticky, semi-clear substance. Rubbing her index finger and thumb together, they were still connected by a thin string of the fluid as she slowly pulled them apart.

With a huff of effort she lifted herself up. Her head still spun a little and her knees were weak as she tried to stand, but she managed to shuffle to the bathroom just a little ways from her bed.

Chell made it to the door frame before a slow clap echoing throughout the room startled her. She gripped the metal of the frame.

"What an... interesting show."

Chell's heart sped up slightly, even as she firmly reminded herself that she did _not_ give a single damn about GLaDOS' presence.

"Now that you're done, may I also remind you to treat your testing clothes with a bit of respect? I would also recommend you wash them later."

Chell's upper lip twitched and she stepped in the bathroom, slamming the door shut behind her.

And was it just her imagination, or was GLaDOS' voice a bit... _lower_ than usual?


End file.
